The Mysterious Tarot Deck

Have you ever had your fortune told? Maybe at a party, by a friend who fancied herself psychic. Maybe you visited a storefront medium on a late night after a few drinks. The experience was probably anticlimactic—the so-called psychic maybe told you that you would meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger, or that you had a lot of opportunities coming your way. Maybe they even gave you a Tarot reading, laying cards with mysterious and inscrutable symbols on them out in an order that supposedly indicated your future. You probably thought the whole thing was a little silly.

But imagine that the Tarot deck this erstwhile medium used was actually an item of Power. And every time they laid out the cards, no matter what formation they put them in—the same cards came up. What then? Would you still think it was silly?

In the Elder Races universe, such a Tarot deck exists—though few people know about it. And it’s no store-front charlatan’s deck, either—it’s Powerful, and when it wants to tell you something, you had better pay attention.

Unlike your average 52-card poker deck, Tarot decks have a suit of cards called the Major Arcana. In the Powerful Tarot deck making its way through the Elder Races universe, the Major Arcana are associated with the seven gods or Primal Powers: Taliesin, God over all the other Gods; Inanna, the goddess of Love; Azrael, the god of Death; Hyperion, the god of Law; Nadir, the goddess of the depths or the Oracle; Will, the god of the Gift; and Camael, the goddess of the Hearth. The Minor Arcana of the Primal Tarot deck deal with the different aspects of each god. For instance, Azrael is the god of Death—but in his other aspects, he is also the god of regeneration, and growth, and is known as the Hunter. Inanna, goddess of love, has many manifestations—romantic, platonic, and love’s opposite, apathy.

The ways the Minor Arcana elaborate upon the Major Arcana are determined by the way that you lay out the cards, and in the Primal Tarot deck the cards’ layout tells a story about yourself that can be more insightful than anything you’ve ever heard before. There are many different ways to lay the out cards of a Tarot deck. Shuffling it is the most common way, letting the energies of the deck flow around the cards as you move them through your hands. You can also lay them out in different formations, depending on the kind of knowledge you’re seeking. A spread to shed light on relationships, for example, might be different to one to get insight into career or financial questions. And with the Primal Tarot, it doesn’t matter what spread you use, or the order you pull the cards out in. If the Deck wants to tell you something, it’ll make sure you hear it, whether you shuffle the cards or not.

In True Colors, Wyr schoolteacher Alice Clark uses the deck while mourning the death of her dearest friends—and hoping that she isn’t next on a murderer’s list…

In Natural Evil, Claudia Hunter encounters the deck—and a severely injured, strangely handsome Wyr in need of her protection…

In Devil’s Gate the deck weaves its Power around Seremela Telemar in her search for her wayward niece, Vetta—and in her growing attraction to the Vampyre lawyer her boss has sent along for protection…

And in Hunter’s Season, the deck comes to Xanthe, a Dark Fae assassin, forced to contemplate an early retirement—and the sudden proximity of the man who she has loved from afar…

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